Trying to find a hotel in Venice

I would suggest reading RS guidebook for hotels in Venice. He recommends many, many properties and most have a direct e-mail you can contact for reservations and price negotiation. If you prefer to stay at 4-5 star properties, they are available and the price is HIGH during summer months! Happy travels

try www.yeego.com or www.alpharooms.com I've received excellent prices from both of them and usually bfast is included.

Also try venere.com. Good luck. (And good for you for realizing that you want to stay in Venice proper and not on the mainland.) Happy travels.

You're competing with the Biennalle - the massive art exhibition held every two years. Don't worry - you should still be able to find a hotel, but you can't be too choosy. A couple of tactics if you haven't tried them. Go on to the official Venice tourism site and look at their hotel lists. Most have websites for booking online. Others have e-mail. Compose an e-mail in English and Italian stating your request for how many nights and how many beds. Send three or four e-mails each night and see what you get back in the morning. You can always say "grazie, no" if the price offered isn't what you want. If you don't get replies, they likely don't have room. I'd get on it. I dropped into Venice one morning in June with no reservations and got into the long line at the tourist information office at the train station to find a room. A runner from a hotel down the Lista de Spagna offered me a room while I was waiting in line. I went back with him and took the room (it wasn't much). Later that day I went back by the TI office and they had posted a sign in the window saying "Venice is full".

We stayed at the Best Western Bisanzio in 2008 and really liked it...booked it online on BW website after reading many Tripadvisor reviews. So close to the Grand Canal & St. Mark's Square. Rooms were a bit pricey for a Best Western but it is Venice after all...everything's pricey there! But good location & it included breakfast. We would definately stay there again.

I used the following website for ideas:
http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/vi-accom.htm I'm staying at a hotel just off the Piazzale Roma next week. Hotel Arlecchino is just one bridge from where airport bus drops off and very short walk to vaporetto stop so I can get where I need easily. There are some other hotels in same area. Rates were reasonable for May; not sure about June.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. All the places suggested are full, but I'll keep trying. I booked 2 rooms at the Russott in San Giuliano, just in case. I don't know if anyone is familiar with that hotel.

I start at Kayak.com and see what you come up with. Then I check Tripadvisor.com and look at ratings. Many hotels have figured out how to put up their own website and take out the middle man. So, you can shop for ratings on Tripadvisor.com then search for the hotel's web site and check bookings. Most hotel web sites have a british flag in the upper right corner to select english.

TripAdvisor is a great help with accomodations & recommendations. Also I've had great luck with vrbo.com, Europe..there are some that rent by the day, (2-3 day min.) and they also have comments by others who have stayed there....some are very reasonable! I found our Rome and Florence accomodations there, but before booking, double checked them on other websites. Good Luck!

TripAdvisor is great, I've been using it all along. Vrbo.com is an excellent site, but unfortunately, same story: everything in site is booked. Wish I'd done my research earlier, but wasn't sure I'd get permission to take vacation. That's just the way it goes. But thanks for all the helpful suggestions, next time I go I'll keep them in mind.

If all else fails, check out Villa Dolcetti. It is a half hour bus ride from Venice. However, we enjoyed a beautiful room with a nice buffet breakfast. It was also very reasonably priced. Did you check Best Western Olympia in Venice? That also looked like a nice hotel. Good luck.

try lastminute.com and laterooms.com I haven't used either, but friends used one of them (not sure which) a couple of times. They are more spontaneous than moi.

I just found a room through booking.com. Offers free cancellation. I usually stay at the Agli Artista but it is full in early June.

We usually try and book through hotels.com so that we can pre-pay. However, we cross-reference the guidebooks like RS and LP and RG and definitely check out http://www.venere.com/hotels/italy/ for Italy. I don't like making a reservation in Italy where I can't pre-pay and have a third party run interference for me if something goes amiss, which is why I fall back on hotels.com, but since you're going at peak and have a short amount of time available, you'll have to make do. Be aware that double-booking is fairly common for some establishments, which you'll generally see when reading reviews on TripAdvisor if the hotel is guilty of doing this. If you do have to stay outside of town, maybe Padua (Padova) would be a good choice as it is still a relatively short train ride, but will be nicer than some of the places typically listed for just outside Venice.